- China: Regime imposes trade curbs on dozens of US firms in retaliation for Pentagon blacklist
Source: CNBC
“China imposed fresh trade restrictions on dozens of U.S. entities on Monday, retaliating against Washington’s move to add more Chinese companies to a Pentagon list of businesses it accuses of aiding Beijing’s military. On Monday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce placed 10 American industrial suppliers on its export control list, including rare earth miners MP Materials Corp and USA Rare Earth, and drone makers Teal Drones and Jaia Robotics — barring exports of any dual-use items originating in China to the companies. Other companies included on the list are California-headquartered electronics manufacturer Aveox Inc, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp, and military equipment provider Oshkosh Defense. In a separate statement Monday, the Chinese Finance Ministry excluded 46 U.S. companies, mostly defense contractors, from participating in government procurement projects.” (06/22/26)
- Alan Greenspan, 1926-2026
Source: The Hill
“Alan Greenspan, who served five terms as chair of the Federal Reserve, died on Monday at the age of 100. Greenspan’s wife, longtime NBC News journalist Andrea Mitchell, said in a statement to the network that her husband died from complications of Parkinson’s disease. … Greenspan served as the 13th chair of the central bank from 1987 to 2006, a tenure spanning four presidents — Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.” (06/22/26)
https://thehill.com/business/5933797-alan-greenspan-federal-reserve
- South Korea: Former justice minister jailed for 25 years over martial law bid
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“A court sentenced a former South Korean justice minister on Monday to 25 years in prison for his role in ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol’s brief and disastrous declaration of martial law in 2024. Park Sung-jae was found guilty of involvement in ‘insurrection,’ the Yonhap news agency reported from the Seoul Central District Court. Yoon’s December 2024 martial law declaration lasted only about six hours as lawmakers raced to the assembly building and voted it down in an emergency session. He has since been convicted of leading an insurrection, and is in detention while appealing a life sentence. Yoon was also given a 30-year jail term earlier this month for sending drones to North Korea to ‘manufacture a national crisis’ to justify his martial law.” (06/22/26)
- Australia: Regime goons steal three tons of recreational pharmaceuticals
Source: Associated Press
“Police found 2.7 metric tons (3 tons) of cocaine on a property on Sydney’s outskirts in Australia’s largest ever seizure of the drug, officials said on Monday. The drug was found on June 19 in plastic tubs buried in underground bunkers hidden beneath three shipping containers on a semirural property in the suburb of Londonderry on Sydney’s western edge, the Queensland Joint Organized Crime Taskforce said in a statement. The containers had false floors that provided access to the cocaine, which police estimate had a street value of 816 million Australian dollars ($572 million). Two Sydney residents, men aged 21 and 25, were arrested at the property and charged with possessing a commercial quantity of an illicit drug.” (06/22/26)
- Romania: Nominated PM Asks Parliament’s Vote of Confidence Without Clear Majority
Source: US News & World Report
“Romania’s prime minister-designate Adrian Vestea asked parliament late on Sunday for a vote of confidence, banking on support from the country’s largest party, but his cabinet is unlikely to pass without support from the opposition far right. Centrist President Nicusor Dan nominated Liberal Party member Vestea earlier this week without consulting the party, in what analysts said was a forceful attempt to rebuild a pro-European government to carry out reforms and keep cutting the largest budget deficit in the European Union. … On Sunday, the Liberals reiterated they would no longer join a ruling coalition with the Social Democrats and voted to exclude Vestea from their ranks, as well as any party member who would back or join his government.” (06/22/26)
- The Social Security Crisis Is Real and Wealth Taxes Will Not Fix It
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey“Mother Jones claims seizing private wealth solves the 2032 shortfall. I show you why government plans to raid your retirement accounts violate individual liberty and ignore structural insolvency.” (06/22/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/the-social-security-crisis-is-real
- The Security State’s Middle East: Why Washington Keeps Choosing Pressure Over Diplomacy
Source: Antiwar.com
by Greg Pence“For more than twenty years now, American leaders from both parties have talked about turning over a new leaf in the Middle East. One president pushed hard for democracy promotion, another tried diplomatic outreach, and someone else swore we’d finally end the ‘forever wars.’ Yet every time a crisis hits, Washington’s first move is rarely sitting down to hammer out a political deal. Instead, it reaches for sanctions, sends in more troops, ramps up deterrence, and leans on the threat – or actual use – of force. This pattern raises a tough question. If the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq didn’t create stable governments, if years of pressure haven’t really changed Iran’s behavior, and if coercion keeps delivering only mixed results, why does the U.S. keep relying on the same old toolbox?” (06/22/26)
- The fax machine still works. Gather round, friends, and be amazed.
Source: Washington Post
by Rachel Manteuffel“It’s difficult to say this without bragging, but I have faxed. This year. The earliest fax machines used telegraph lines; fax machines are (still!) transmitters of information over space, but also over time. Jules Verne, predicting 1960 from 1863, imagined fax machines all over Paris. Journalists, doctors and governments still demand to be faxed from time to time, as I found out. I have now done it twice since the heyday of faxing. The first time was last year, and it went okay after 45 or so minutes of squinting and with the help of two other office professionals. … The second came in the year of our Lord twenty-twenty-six. This time, I knew exactly what to do and could do it alone. But I didn’t. I walked over to some desks near mine. ‘Interns,’ I said, ‘want to watch me send a fax?'” (06/22/26)
- Who Do You Trust?
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith“Trust: allow someone to have, use, or look after (someone or something of importance or value) with confidence: I’d trust you with my life. Most people don’t trust politicians, yet they dominate our lives. How did this arrangement come about? Trust is a critical consideration in every relationship. Do people mean what they say? Do they deliver on their promises? If enough people didn’t trust Amazon it would have folded long ago. Friends would cease being friends if they proved untrustworthy. We don’t trust politicians but we are stuck with them, at least for now.” (06/22/26)
- Why White Nationalism Is Full of Idiots
Source: The Dispatch
by Surya Gowda“Identity-based movements are ‘the bat signal for every loser.’” (06/22/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/white-nationalism-elitism-hanania/
- Political Repression by Any Other Name is Still Repression
Source: CounterPunch
by Ron Jacobs“In recent weeks, the misnamed US Department of Justice has indicted twenty-three activists on serious charges related to their organizing against institutional complicity in the US-Israeli genocide of Palestinians and the kidnapping of US residents by militarized federal immigration enforcers. The indictments are connected to two different cases, one in Michigan and the other in Minnesota. From my vantage point, it seems fairly clear that the indictments are, among other things, designed to deflect the media and the public attention away from the crimes against humanity being perpetrated by the government and those institutions behind the prosecutions. In fact, these indictments are purposefully political and part of a broader repression against US residents and organizations opposed to the ultra-right government of Donald Trump.” (06/22/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/06/22/political-repression-by-any-other-name-is-still-repression/
- Congress loves to buy failed jets and ships then make your kids pay
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Dan Grazier“As Congress debates the 2027 defense budget, members must confront an essential reality: their children and grandchildren will be left footing the bill. Many of the dollars that will be appropriated for military purposes in 2027 will be borrowed and tacked onto the ballooning national debt. But that is only part of the problem. Defense policies established today become spending obligations for future generations. If members of Congress are seriously considering $1.5 trillion in defense spending for 2027, it is in part because they must cover the expenses resulting from policy decisions made years ago by people who have long-since passed from the scene.” (06/22/26)
- Liberal Elites Promote “Abundance,” But Democratic Voters Want Socialism
Source: The American Conservative
by Scott Greer“Abundance liberals’ enthusiasm for growth faces a major obstacle with Democrats’ sharp turn against tech. AI and data centers are the enemy. Even though tech may be the biggest contributor to American economic growth right now, Democratic voters want it to stop. No amount of abundance rhetoric can convince them otherwise. These state and local contests offer a possible preview of what the 2028 Democratic presidential primary may look like. For all the efforts spent by Newsom and others to move to the center, they may all be forced to cater to their party’s radical elements to have any hope of winning the nomination.” (06/22/26)
- What Obama Meant
Source: Persuasion
by Eboo Patel“I recently got the chance to walk through the exhibits of the Barack Obama Presidential Center before its opening on Thursday. Looking at photos of the young Obama as a community organizer in Chicago, watching video clips of those iconic speeches that marked his dream-like rise from a nobody to leader of the free world, I was reminded of a time when our politics was more hopeful, our social sector was more constructive, and the two were aligned in the service of the nation.” (06/21/26)
- Speaking Precisely Is Useful
Source: Pierre Lemieux
by Pierre Lemieux“Writing to be understood is the name of the game, but there is a limit to dumbing down non-dumb ideas.” (06/21/26)
https://pierrelemieux.substack.com/p/speaking-precisely-is-useful
- EconTalk, 06/22/26
Source: EconTalk
“Can a Phone Be a Cow? (with Philip Auerswald).” (06/22/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/can-a-phone-be-a-cow-with-philip-auerswald/
- SolutionsWatch, 06/22/26
Source: The Corbett Report
“You want the right to repair your own property, don’t you? Then, you have two options. Either you call your congressman to let him know you want him to pass the latest legislation going through the house (but not the fake legislation that’s designed to water down the real legislation!) … or you try this alternative strategy.” (06/22/26)
https://corbettreport.com/the-right-to-repair-solutionswatch/
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 06/21/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Trump Threatens Iran During Switzerland Summit, US Announces Airstrikes in Somalia, and More.” (06/21/26)
- Fountainhead Forum, episode 461
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Jeremy Todd on running for Thomas Massie’s seat in Congress.” (06/21/26)
https://rumble.com/v7bln9a-ff-461-jeremy-todd-on-running-for-thomas-massies-seat-in-congress.html
- William Van Wagenen on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Scott interviews William Van Wagenen about what he’s been seeing in southern Lebanon as the fighting between Hezbollah and the IDF drags on. They also discuss the Western-backed bin Ladinite regime in Syria.” (06/21/26)